As with every academic publication, I am excited, honored and very happy! I contributed a book chapter to an edited volume called “Professional playground: Alles over werken in de game-industrie”. In the chapter I talk about working as a game journalist (in the Netherlands) and critically reflect on being positioned between (the expectations of both) readers and the game industry. As far as I know, this might be the first academic publication in Dutch on the subject (just saying, for many gamers on message boards being “First!!11oneoen” is a major achievement).

Talking about firsts, the book is one of the few books (in Dutch) on games, but also one of the few books on working in the game industry. There is some work done on working in the game industry (e.g. by Mark Deuze in his book on Media Work & his edited volume Managing Media Work), but none of that is in Dutch or from a Dutch perspective.

The book has three parts (developer, publisher and support/related industries), and has a wide range of authors (working in the industry, in academia, and lawyers). There is a .pdf of the chapter outline here, and chapter 9 on serious game is the sample chapter (in .pdf as well).

If you’re interested in buying the book, you can do so on Bol.com. If you are interested in my chapter, drop me an email (david @ gamespace . nl) and I’ll send you my latest draft.

As part of a special summer project, we did an extra Bashers podcast with (Dutch) Microsoft country manager Paul Naber. It turned out to be a very worthwhile conversation with the five of us talking about all things Xbox. Paul was very generous with his time and comments and I really enjoyed our discussion. Go check it out: “In gesprek met Xbox-baas Paul Naber over Microsoft, Xbox 360, Kinect en meer“.

As part of a pilot project, I wrote a review of Apple’s iPad (from the perspective of an academic/PhD student). I am very happy with the device and it is particularly useful to read books/PhD theses/articles. The review (with some pro’s and con’s and a couple of apps I like) is downloadable as a .pdf here (3 pages in Dutch).

*update* (July 10) Democracy in action! Dutch member of parliament Tofik Dibi (of Groen Links) asked the minister of justice a series of (very spot on) questions. Our combined efforts (of gamers, academics and journalists) to argue for better media literacy among parents (and against censorship), seem to have made a difference! Read the questions here. */update*

Our Dutch minister of justice Hirsch Ballin send a letter to the “Tweede Kamer” (the House of Representatives) regarding the banning of violent video games. His letter is emblematic of a (political) culture in which key politicians are utterly media illiterate and build their arguments on selectively quoting solid research. On top of that, a ban on violent film would be less desirable because that would lead to civil unrest (as opposed to games?). Well, I/we obviously disagree.

At Bashers, there’s more information. I wrote an op-ed to ask gamers to have their voices heard. “Neem contact op met Hirsch Ballin en bewijs dat een verbod op gewelddadige games weerstand oproept“.

At game industry magazine Control there is a crucial piece of information (of prof. Jansz) slamming the minister’s letter.

And at Petities.nl there’s a petition to sign.

I have to come up with better titles for these updates… Anyway, another sort of bi-monthly update. Still working on my PhD, progressing well, end date is set at Q4 of this year. In the meantime I did some miscellaneous writing/talking, listed below.

For Bashers.nl I wrote another “Uitgelezen”, a book review on a game related book. This installment is Osamu Inoue’s “Nintendo Magic, Winning The Videogame Wars” (2010). In addition, I did participated in this season’s last podcast “Bashers Podcast seizoen 2, aflevering 34: seizoensoverzicht”. We talk about game journalism, E3 and new game platforms. For your information, you can subscribe to the podcasts via iTunes (they are in Dutch though).

For MM Nieuws (Dutch magazine on management and marketing for the creative industries), I wrote a piece on social media and gamers, arguing that the game industry in many ways is quite adapt at facilitating user created content, or at least in many instances not regulating it as much as the movie or music industries. The piece is for subscribers only, but I put up a .pdf here of the unedited version. If you’re a subscriber, there’s more on the MM website.

In plaats van consumenten te zien als veredelde pinautomaten, als een eindpunt in de keten van productie, distributie en tenslotte consumptie, worden gamers massaal aangemoedigd vooral met games aan de slag te gaan. Parodieer maar, maak maar flmpjes, plaatjes en verhalen over de game die je zo tof vindt. En deel ze, met behulp van social media, vooral online met je vrienden en vriendinnen!

For the University of Amsterdam weekly magazine (Folia) I wrote a column on innovative ICT use at the university. I found that, to put it mildly, it is very hard to, for example, gain access to the wireless network and to be able to use ICT productively at my office. Got some reactions from university staff (agreeing with me), so I hope the ICT policies change for the better, if only for future generations of students. The piece is here: “Vooroplopen heeft een hoge prijs” (.pdf, see page 8).

Voor een iPad-gebruiker is het digitale leven aan de UvA een kafkaëske nachtmerrie. Waarom faciliteert ICT eigenlijk alleen de Windowsgebruiker?

Critical Gamer did an exstensive interview about idealism in the game industry, and game journalism in particular. In the interview I talk about the ‘problem’ of games journalism, the ‘games journalism lifestyle’ and what games journalism should be. The interview was done by Utrecht University student Snezana Nedeski and can be found here.

For Bashers I wrote a book review on “The race for a new game machine: creating the chips inside the Xbox 360 & the Playstation 3″. Concluding:

Heb je het geduld om door de halfbakken managementtips en de verhalen over slapeloze nachten van Shippy en Phipps heen te lezen, dan biedt The race for a new game machine de broodnodige verdieping om eerdere en toekomstige hardwareontwikkelingen binnen de gamesindustrie net weer iets beter te kunnen duiden. En met Natal en Move voor de deur is dat alles behalve een overbodige luxe.

For Bashers.nl I now have two regular, monthly contributions. There’s the monthly podcast; the latest version discusses issues as piracy, Nintendo’s and Microsoft’s line-up, Bioshock 2, and the question whether or not games should be “fun” (and if that is even a good question).

Additionally, I will write a monthly book review on a game related book. This month was on “Fun, Inc. Why Play is the 21st Century’s Most Serious Business” by Tom Chatfield. From the review:

Voor die gamers (en niet-gamers!) die zich niet, zoals veel Bashers-redacteuren, dagelijks met games bezig houden als studenten, journalisten, ontwikkelaars of onderzoekers is Fun, Inc. dan ook een soort van opfriscursus. Een gedegen boek dat nergens echt spannend wordt en dat je in alle rust kan naslaan om te weten wat er gezegd wordt over de discussies die nu spelen over games.

Rather than the somewhat traditional list of what made 2009 remarkable (for me), I wrote a book review of 2009′s three best game books: “De 3 beste boeken over videogames“. To be sure, there are way more (and arguably better) books published last year, but these three books are best suited for the Bashers.nl audience (many of which are not scholars or students) and I have read them cover-to-cover.

The list consists of:

1. Montfort, N., & Bogost, I. (2009) · Racing the beam: The Atari Video computer system · Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
2. Gilsdorf, E. (2009) · Fantasy freaks and gaming geeks: An epic quest for reality among role players, online gamers, and other dwellers of imaginary realms · Guilford, Conn: Lyons Press.
3. Juul, J. (2009) · A casual revolution: Reinventing video games and their players · Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

I promised on Bashers.nl to make the book review a monthly feature, so expect the next book review (somewhere) in February. Tips on good game related books (the newer, the better) are always welcome of course (contact me at David @ gamespace . nl)!

Also on Bashers.nl, an email discussion between me and Niels ‘t Hooft on 2009′s mega-hit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in which we reflect on realism in games, mediated warfare and the potential and expectations of big games such as these. See: “David en Niels over Modern Warfare 2″: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Every once in a while I get an invitation to get early access to a game. Sometimes this means coming to an office in The Netherlands, but sometimes this also means traveling to some part of Europe. Much to my delight I was asked to come and see Rockstar’s new sandbox game Red Dead: Redemption. In London I got to see an extensive playthrough of three missions followed by the opportunity to ask any question I wanted. To be honest, I was somewhat skeptical about the game. Cowboys? How can an openworld game in the Wild West be interesting and provide some kind of meaningful play?

My first impression has been a good one. Similar to Grand Theft Auto 4 a year ago, Red Dead: Redemption has some serious potential. Even better, this is a game I would like to play, which, in my world, is the golden standard. Dagblad De Pers published the story yesterday: “Dwalen door de eindeloze leegte van het Wilde Westen” (.pdf see page 13). The story came out exactly the way I had it in mind. My main angle was to focus on the openness of the game and to give the reader a hint of the incredible scale of the project. With the help of my editor the story came out exactly the way I envisioned it. Up to, hopefully, the next exclusive!

Always wondered how the business of game server hosting ‘works’? I did, so I wrote an article on it for today’s Dagblad De Pers. The article is based on an interview with i3D.net‘s marketing manager and deals with issues such as the low entrance barrier for new companies and the importance of an online community. Read the article online here: “Gameservers – Verhuurder van digitale trapveldjes“. In addition I did a review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine: “Beter dan de film“.

On a totally unrelated note. This Thursday is the annual CSN conference. I won’t be a speaker, but I will attend and the program looks interesting. Urs Gasser from the Berkman Center will be there (author of the book Born Digital), and Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester. There are still tickets, so if you don’t have plans, do drop by.

The last couple of weeks I have been doing various lectures (at the University of Amsterdam) and a series of talks for cultural institutions and various other parties (through The Next Speaker) on Obama’s implementation of digital media during his succesful bid for the White House.

One of the talks was at the Marketingdag voor de Podiumkunsten at De Reehorst in Ede. The cultural sector has its own magazine; MMNieuws and in their latest number (vol 10, ed. 2, page 6-7) I wrote a two-page piece on Obama’s campaign: “Ja, wij kunnen het ook! – Obama’s nieuwe media campagne van binnenuit”.

If you are interested in a lecture on why Obama won because of new media, contact The Next Speaker for more information.